Britain’s Home Office is in need of “root and branch” reform – while Britain needed to review the use of a net migration target to drive its policies — a powerful committee of British MPs said in a report published on Tuesday, in the wake of the “appalling” scandal over the government’s treatment of (mainly) Caribbean Commonwealth immigrants, also known as the “Windrush” generation.

The scandal over the treatment of the Windrush generation — which came to the UK after the Second World War but before 1973 to help fill labour shortages — erupted earlier this year, as it emerged that the Home Office had wrongly treated many of them as illegal immigrants and denied them their rights, including access to crucial medical care, or the labour market. In some cases they were held in detention centres or even deported from the country. Whole families had been caught up in it. The government set up a task force in the wake of the scandal, to which 8,000 cases had been referred.

MPs on the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee slammed the “callous” system for the injustice.

While welcoming the task force, the MPs called for further action, including the setting up of a hardship fund to support those impacted, as well as wider action over the “hostile environment” measures the government has introduced since 2014.

Section 322 (5) misuse

These include the restoration of immigration appeal rights, and legal aid, particularly for children. It also raised concerns about the use of internal Home Office targets, and bonuses. “A target led culture may have led enforcement offices to focus on people like the Windrush generation, who may have been easier to detain and remove,” warned the MPs. The MPs also pointed to the role the net migration target could have to “encourage” the Home Office to increase departures without adequate checks. The Windrush reports comes as politicians have raised concerns about the use of section 322 (5) of the immigration rules, designed to prevent the settlement of terrorists and criminals, against highly skilled workers who had made changes to their tax submissions (in line with tax authority requirements).

Lord Taverne, a member of the House of Lords, described their treatment as “every bit as outrageous” as the treatment of Windrush immigrants.

With a Home Office inquiry on the cases underway, MPs and Lords have continued to gather evidence on the issue. In June, MPs held a debate on the “cruel”, “inappropriate” and “heavy handed” tactics used against the highly skilled workers. While a significant number of Indians are known to have been caught up in the 322(5) controversy, the numbers caught up in Windrush remain unclear.

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